Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. In 2015 when I was elected, I was asked the question: what was the first thing I was going to do when I came to the Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife. My answer was: I was going to build relationships.
When I was acclaimed to this Assembly, the first thing I wanted to do was build relationships, so I reached out to all new Members. If elected Premier, the first thing I would do is build a relationship with the Prime Minister. We have priorities, but if we're not on their radar, if we don't have that kind of access at the very top, then our priorities aren't going to be heard. It's good to have relationships with Cabinet Ministers and the bureaucracy as well, but to have the ear of the Prime Minister I think is very important because we have serious issues facing us, and I'd tell him to expect a new way of doing business from the territories, as well, that does line up with the Liberal priorities. The Liberals, they talk a lot about reconciliation. There is nowhere in the country that does reconciliation like the Northwest Territories. Going forward, we're going to see a new way of it. We're going to move forward arm-in-arm with Indigenous governments, and we're going to go to Ottawa with our Indigenous partners to address some of these issues, to address these infrastructure issues so that we can be a sustainable economy on our own, so we don't have to wait on our $1.3-billion welfare cheque from Ottawa every year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.